Gabrielle was 5 when her father last skated in a professional hockey game. From 1984-2001, J.J. Daigneault, 46, played for 10 NHL teams, three AHL franchises and one team in the defunct IHL.

He scored a game-winning goal in the 1987 Stanley Cup finals, a clip his kids have seen on YouTube. He was a member of Canada's 1984 Olympic team and won a Stanley Cup as a member of his hometown Montreal Canadiens in 1993.

Through all of the twists and turns of his playing career, he never spent more than some passing time in Hartford. But 11 years after his playing career ended, Daigneault has planted roots in the area.

Daigneault, in his fifth season as a Connecticut Whale assistant coach, has lived in West Hartford since he was hired by the Rangers in 2007. He and his wife Janie moved their three daughters from Scottsdale, Ariz. to a place they knew little about, but now consider it home.

Gabrielle, 15, is a sophomore at Hall and was The Courant's Girls Swimmer of the Year in the fall. Valerie, 14, also a swimmer, will be a freshman at Hall in the fall and Julliette is 4.

"I was 20 and my wife was 19 when we got married, and I just remember saying that I didn't want to be moving kids around during my career," Daigneault said. "So we waited until I was 30 when my first daughter was born and I retired when I was 35, just when she was starting kindergarten. Now I look … I don't want to go anywhere else and change schools. They have a circle of friends here. Right now, I would like my daughters to have their roots in Connecticut."

Hartford has a long history of NHL players planting their roots in the region, but Daigneault had no connection to the area before settling here. He and Janie never had difficulty adjusting to new communities during his career, whether it was Cherry Hill, N.J., Chesterfield, Mo., or Newport Beach, Calif.

Upon retiring, the couple settled in Scottsdale with their two young daughters and Daigneault began taking classes at the local community college. That's where he thought he would settle into retirement.

"Now, who knows?" Daigneault said. "I don't know where [coaching] will take me. But I know we love it here."

Daigneault still has his home in Arizona along with a condominium in Florida, a downtown property in Montreal and a cottage north of the city.

"It's not that I'm a gypsy … we just have no trouble moving around," Daigneault said. "I'm not afraid to move."

Daigneault's hockey journey began in Montreal, where he grew up as a passionate Canadiens fan and developed into a junior hockey star. The Canucks selected him with the 10th overall pick in 1984 and he spent two seasons in Vancouver before he was traded to the Flyers in 1986.

The Flyers demoted him to the AHL during his second season with the team, and he wound up bouncing between the NHL and AHL over the next few seasons. Daigneault eventually found a spot with the Canadiens, thanks to the tutoring of assistant coach Jacques Laperriere.

"I was a small, puck-mover, offensive defenseman who early in his career was probably too creative," Daigneault said. "I'd take the puck up ice, spin around, deke past guys …Then I went to Montreal and Jacques Laperriere, a Hall of Famer, taught me to play within my limitations. He said I don't have to be so creative all the time,"

That's a lesson he carried the rest of his career, as he moved from Montreal to St. Louis to Pittsburgh to Anaheim to Long Island to Nashville to Phoenix and eventually to Minnesota for one game during the 2000-2001 season.

The player who burst from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League as an offensive defenseman in the early 1980s evolved into a steady, reliable player over 15 seasons. So when he gives advice to the young Whale defensemen, Daigneault brings plenty of credibility.

"I have been through a lot as a player," Daigneault said. "What I always understood was, you have to be the best at this level to get back to the NHL and stay. You can't be a borderline player here."

The Rangers (58 points) sit atop the NHL and their defense includes players who were mentored by Daigneault in Hartford. Recent call-up Stu Bickel had spent a few years bouncing between the AHL and ECHL before he arrived in Hartford last year, but a season working with Daigneault helped polish his game.

Now he's entrenched with the Rangers, playing well and earning ice time for the NHL's best team.

"He never really had somebody to give him a chance and somebody to teach him," Daigneault said. "You could tell he was a little bit raw physically, a little bit rigid. But you could tell he really cared about his career. When a guy has character, sometimes it overcomes talent."